1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to determining a value for content. More particularly, the present invention relates to techniques for determining the value of a user selected portion of content.
2. Background Art
Content suppliers typically license their content to third parties for personal or commercial use. For example, a content supplier may license a portion of content, such as a memorable scene from a recent smash hit movie, to an advertising agency planning to use the scene in a television advertisement to attract a larger audience. In another example, a content supplier may license portions of content to individuals who may wish to use the content in entertaining video compilations and parodies, such as video “mash-ups.” Such commercial and private uses for content, coupled with the convenience and accessibility of the Internet, have created a rapidly growing market for the licensing of content. As such, the licensing of content has emerged as an important source of revenue for content suppliers.
One conventional technique used by content suppliers for valuing a portion of content involves the use of a uniform fee for a particular duration of the content. For example, a user wishing to license a portion of a particular movie can visit a Website maintained by the content supplier and can select from one of a number of preselected clips from the movie that are available for licensing. Each clip can then be downloaded from the Website, for example, for a licensing fee determined by the duration of the clip and not by other factors, such as the subject matter included in the movie clip. As such, the conventional technique for valuing portions of content may undesirably result in a loss of revenue to content suppliers since the licensing fees may be too low for some portions of the content, e.g., portions of the content having a high production value.